Commandment #2  Make No Graven Images

Exodus 20:4-6

The commandment is only one verse, Ex. 20:4.  The other two verses are further reasons we need to obey Him.

I. The commandment

EX 20:4 "You shall not make for yourself an idol in the form of anything in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the waters below.

A. No one knows what Jesus looked like.  We are not to worship an image of Him.  It is no accident we have no description of Jesus other than in Isaiah.

  ISA 53:2 He grew up before him like a tender shoot, and like a root out of dry ground. He had no beauty or majesty to attract us to him, nothing in his appearance that we should desire him.

ISA 53:3 He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows, and familiar with suffering. Like one from whom men hide their faces he was despised, and we esteemed him not.

We are to make no likeness of Him to worship it.

B.  We are not to worship the cross.  It is to be a reminder only of what God did for us, to evoke thanksgiving, love, trust and obedience.

II.  God's ability to punish

EX 20:5 You shall not bow down to them or worship them; for I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God, punishing the children for the sin of the fathers to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me,

A.  This is not figurative; it is literal. Generational sin begets generational punishment. (Note:  Paul, we have specifics on this if you want more.  Pastor Steve Dowdle at Casas Adobes Baptist Church in Tucson, AZ, is an expert on it.  He is a counseling pastor and has made his life study on Satan's power and generational sin.)

B.  If we don't obey because we love and trust God, we need to obey because we fear and respect Him.

III.  The reason comes back to God's love and power:

  EX 20:6 but showing love to a thousand generations of those who love me and keep my commandments.

A.  Most of us can't follow our lines back more than two or three generations.  Five or 10 are extraordinary.  No one can trace back a thousand generations.  But God knows. He is all knowing and eternal.  So He knows the thousand generations that will come after us, as well as the past thousand generations of our pasts.  He is God.

B.  Our keeping His commandments is important to God.  It is how we show we love and trust Him. This is not just Old Testament.  Jesus said it as well.

  JN 14:15 "If you love me, you will obey what I command.